WARNING: THE FOLLOWING LINK CONTAINS GRAPHIC PICTURES OF THE RESULTS OF WAR. DO NOT GO THERE IF YOU ARE NOT PREPARED.
Over at Kos there is an article, which, while amusingly written, makes the reality of the recent revelations about our military using chemical weapons/incendiaries in Fallujah clear:
First, I think it should be a stated goal of United States policy to not melt the skin off of children.
As a natural corollary to this goal, I think the United States should avoid dropping munitions on civilian neighborhoods which, as a side effect, melt the skin off of children. You can call them “chemical weapons” if you must, or far more preferably by the more proper name of “incendiaries”. The munitions may or may not precisely melt the skin off of children by setting them on fire; they do melt the skin off of children, however, through robust oxidation of said skin on said children, which is indeed colloquially known as “burning”. But let’s try to avoid, for now, the debate over the scientific phenomenon of exactly how the skin is melted, burned, or caramelized off of the aforementioned children. I feel quite confident that others have put more thought into the matter of how to melt the skin off of children than I have, and will trust their judgment on the matter.
This is one of the reasons I am a pacifist. Modern warfare, by its very nature, cannot be just. It always degenerates into barbarism, as we have seen in Iraq.
